Surprising Costs Imposed by Drought

Droughts do more than raise water prices. Here are some impacts you might not have considered.

Subsidence

Pump enough water out of the ground, and sometimes the ground sinks. This is called subsidence.

In some areas east of Houston, the land has dropped by more than nine feet.

Subsidence destroys foundations and breaks underground pipes. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that it has affected more than 17,000 square miles in 45 states, 80 percent of it due to groundwater usage.

If it goes on long enough, even aquifers can feel the pinch, permanently losing storage capacity.

Brownwood, a subdivision near Baytown, Texas, was abandoned due to frequent flooding caused by subsidence.

(Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Theron D. Sage)

Disease

Drought can concentrate water-borne disease. Look to the Rio Grande for a stunning example; the concentrations of pathogens increase nearly 100-fold during dry summer months.

Hot weather and drought also can prompt outbreaks of insect-transmitted disease such as the West Nile virus.

Texas saw more than 1,700 confirmed cases and 89 deaths from the virus in 2012.

Detecting, treating and preventing West Nile infection is expensive.

Dallas County alone spent $8.1 million treating West Nile patients in summer 2012, according to the medical director of Dallas County Health and Human Services.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Texas state government paid nearly $2.7 million for insecticide spraying in Dallas and Tarrant counties.

Dallas County has spent almost $1 million on preventative efforts so far in 2013.

That money could buy a year’s worth of public schooling for more than 1,300 Texas students.